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When I was the executive producer of a Hollywood awards show, a publicist arranged for me to borrow a dress from a famous designer to wear at the event. I selected an elegant gown in pale gray for the first year’s show and chose a column of dark gray for the next one. In the third year, the designer’s rep suggested a gown with swirls of yellow and orange.
“I don’t really wear those colors,” I said.
“Maybe you should,” she insisted.
Until then, I generally stuck to neutral shades in all parts of life. Many people do. You probably have several pairs of black pants in your closet and the most common color for a sofa is gray. Sure those choices are safe, but you never feel cheerful on a gray day. And who wants to be in a dark mood?
I never felt better than I did wearing that yellow-and-orange gown. Bright colors resonate with joyous messages and they can also be more flattering as you get older. Actress Helen Mirren wore a purple gown to the Golden Globes this year. And, at the Cannes Film Festival, she put blazing blue highlights in her hair to match her bright blue dress. She graced another movie opening wearing a long hot pink skirt with an orange round-necked sweater.
Our bodies are always sending messages to our minds, and when you see a bright color, your brain gets the information that something good is going on. Evolutionary biologists say this might be a leftover response from our foraging days when color often signaled a ripe fruit or source of food.
A team of researchers led by Eva Specker at the University of Vienna did a study on the connection between brightness and positivity. They found that the association is “strong, automatic and universal” — which really is about as definitive as researchers ever get. Bright colors like white or pink stimulate positive emotions and dark colors (black or brown) conjure negative emotions.
In her book Joyful, designer Ingrid Fetell Lee describes how color and other aspects of our environment affect our mood. She describes having once been a chromophobe — someone so afraid of color “that the entire spectrum of my apartment fell between white and cream.”
She’s not alone — her whites are de rigeur at fancy apartments (and retirement communities) around the country. Lee considers it a cultural bias that shows how much our society embraces self-restraint and distrusts joy. Put that way, white and gray don’t sound quite so elegant.
A study published in the Journal of Personality found that women feel more upbeat when exposed to the color pink. The researchers found “an association between pink and optimism” — which made me think about the Barbie movie. The great acting and terrific script helped make it one of the most successful movies in the world (grossing a billion and a half dollars). But, I suspect that the buoyant pink palate also made everyone watching it feel happy.
In addition to affecting your mood, the right colors can change your performance. Anthropologist Russell Hill, a professor at Durham University, has found that people do better in competitions when wearing red uniforms. At an international soccer tournament, teams scored more goals and won more often when they competed in red jerseys rather than white or blue. During one Olympic Games, the contestants who wore red in sports including wrestling and boxing took home more medals.
Crazy? Not really. Our brains function as prediction machines, and it may be that when they see red they urge our bodies to be more aggressive. A red jacket or dress used to be a favorite power statement for women newscasters and politicians from Nancy Reagan to Nancy Pelosi. Now bright red lipstick seems to do the trick — and it can be flattering on everyone from Taylor Swift to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Color adds vividness to your overall look and says you don’t mind standing out at any age. If you’re not sure about color, having a dash of it rather than an onslaught can be a good idea. Margot Robbie may look fabulous in an all-pink dress, but you can get the same perk of optimism with a pink scarf or belt. And nothing’s easier than replacing your black pocketbook with a red or pink one.
The little black dress that always seemed so chic can be draining as you age and your hair and skin tones aren’t quite as vibrant. Iris Apfel, the famed interior designer who died this year at age 102, became famous for her bold style and outspoken views. She worked with nine presidents and first ladies to decorate the White House and famously said that: “Color can raise the dead.”
Your perception of color changes as you do. A recent study led by researchers at University College London looked at healthy adults with an average age of 64 and discovered that our brains become less sensitive to the intensity of colors as we get older. What your brain once perceived as incredibly bright starts to seem a little less vivid. To keep the mood-boosting advantages of color at any age, think about replacing the pastels you once liked with more saturated and intense shades.
When I started swimming again a few years ago, I cautiously bought the black ruched bathing suit that older women always wear. Recently I realized that whatever my age or shape, I love swimming and don’t need to disappear at the pool — so I bought a one-piece in bright orange. “That’s a happy suit!” my husband said the first time I wore it.
I like having a happy suit, and I’m convinced that "joy" is the most flattering style of all. I swim faster and have more fun when I’m feeling bright and positive. I told one friend about my experience with the orange bathing suit and she said she understood but could never wear that shade herself. I smiled and said: “Maybe you should."
Photo credits (clockwise from left): John Nacion/Getty Images; Taylor Hill/Getty Images (2); Dominique Charriau/Getty Images
Have any of you started to incorporate more bright colors into your wardrobe? Let us know in the comments below.
